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They don't really get well, Henny. Most diseases, viral and some bacterial, leave the bird a carrier, a Typhoid Mary if you will. That means that they can spread disease to other birds even when they themselves seem to be well. So far, in the going-on-five-years that I've had chickens, I have never had any respiratory illness here, mainly because I do practice a modicum of biosecurity and I never, ever buy birds from anyone. If any of that stuff makes it into my flock, I will automatically cull. I'll cry for days, but I will do it.
I sell eggs and chicks on occasion and would never want to be responsible for passing illness into anyone else's flock, since some diseases are passed down through eggs as well as by horizontal transmission.
They don't really get well, Henny. Most diseases, viral and some bacterial, leave the bird a carrier, a Typhoid Mary if you will. That means that they can spread disease to other birds even when they themselves seem to be well. So far, in the going-on-five-years that I've had chickens, I have never had any respiratory illness here, mainly because I do practice a modicum of biosecurity and I never, ever buy birds from anyone. If any of that stuff makes it into my flock, I will automatically cull. I'll cry for days, but I will do it.
I sell eggs and chicks on occasion and would never want to be responsible for passing illness into anyone else's flock, since some diseases are passed down through eggs as well as by horizontal transmission.
